Shootings in Ekiti over OBJ, Fayose - Vehicles set ablaze, streets deserted

Dapo Falade, Ado-Ekiti - 25.01.2008

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo’s visit to Ado-Ekiti on Thursday was marred by violent protest from youths who were opposed to the visit and had to be dispersed by security agents mobilised to take control of the major roads in the town.

Some of the youth carried placards which various inscriptions condemning the visit and engaged in shooting. Also, some youths protested when they sighted a convoy of vehicles bringing the former governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, to an Ado Ekiti court.

Obasanjo was also accused of flagging the popular Ado-Ekiti-Otun-Kwara border road three times without the award of the contract for the reconstruction of the road. The youth blamed him for imposing his kinsman on the state during the period of emergency rule, adding that the kinsman manipulated the last election to favour the ruling party.

The protesting youth, who set ablaze a Hilux Toyota van on the New Secretariat Road, had gathered at the Okeyimi Roundabout before they walked to the popular Fajuyi Junction where they met mobile policemen who stopped them from proceeding further.

Addressing leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and traditional rulers in the state at the Abiodun Adetiloye Hall located on the outskirts of the state capital, the former president said he was in the state to thank the people for their support during his eight-year rule, adding that without their support he would not have achieved much in office.

Accompanied by the PDP deputy national chairman, Chief Bode George, he stated that he accomplished much for his people, adding that he would remain grateful to the traditional rulers who supported him throughout his eight years in office.

Admonishing the state governor, Mr. Segun Oni, to carry everybody along irrespective of party affiliations, Obasanjo said; “In governance and in politics, once you are in a position of authority, all the citizens are your subjects. You must not discriminate against anybody. All must benefit from your government. Accountability must be your watchword.

“You must be transparent, honest and keep your integrity intact. The economy of the state must receive all the attention it deserves so as to improve the lot of your people,” he said.

Oni, who had received the former president earlier in the day at Ekiti-Osun border, told the him that the present administration in the state had achieved much in the last seven months.

He said some of his achievements included the surgical festivals during which he said 1,200 people were operated upon free of charge without any single casualty and the award of 25 road projects covering 350 kilometres across the state.

Also, the attempted arraignment of the former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, before an Ado-Ekiti High Court on Thursday triggered off exchange of gunshots in the state capital.

Fayose was brought to the state capital in a J5 Expert van of the Nigeria Prison Service (NPS) in a convoy of about six security vans amid heavily armed mobile policemen. Scores of Fayose’s supporters cordoned off the Fajuyi Park area, just a stone’s throw from the premises of the High Court.

He was immediately moved to the prison located at the Fajuyi area for the raging tension to subside while armed policemen were immediately drafted to the Ado-Iyin Road area to forestall the disruption of the former president’s visit, scheduled for the Abiodun Adetiloye Hall.

Eventually, the former governor could not be brought to trial as the police prosecutor could not produce him for trial leading to the abrupt adjournment of the case till January 28 by the judge, Justice Cornelius Akintayo.

Justice Akintayo said that his court could not afford to wait endlessly for the former governor, hence the need for adjournment so that his bail bond at the Ikoyi Prison, where he is on remand for alleged N1.3 billion graft, could be perfected before the date of adjournment.

It was reported that the former governor had been taken back to Lagos, where the subsisting court order that he should be incarcerated pending the time his bail conditions would be perfected.

Reacting to the failed arraignment, Mr. Owoseni Ajayi, his counsel and a former Commissioner for Justice in the Fayose administration, said the arraignment trampled on the rule of law, arguing that the governor was still at the Appellate Court contesting the warrant of arrest granted the police to arrest him to face prosecution in Ekiti State.

Also reacting to the failed arraignment, the Ayo Fayose Foundation Movement (AFFM) said that the bringing of the former governor to Ado-Ekiti on Thursday for trial was confirmation of its fears that the prison authorities and the Ekiti State government were working together.

In a statement signed by its Director of Research and Publicity, Dr. Funso Alarape, the group said ”we are surprised as to why Justice Tijani Abubakar of the Federal High Court, Lagos, who admitted Fayose to bail last Monday had to travel immediately and only to come back on Thursday night.”

Meanwhile, Governor Oni of Ekiti State has condemned the burning of a vehicle belonging to the state government. Governor Oni, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications, Mr. Moses Jolayemi, said that it was most uncharitable for people to destroy public property on account of their selfish interests.

Governor Oni, who said he could not fathom why such a new vehicle bought with the people’s money should be burnt, stated that sponsors of the crime had demonstrated what they stood for.

“They are simply selfish and callous. It is now clear to every right thinking person the configuration of those regarded as Fayose and AC supporters in Ekiti; people who set other people’s and state’s property ablaze and cause mayhem. We all know where they belong on the rungs of the society’s ladder.

“These people we all know are dregs of the society and they form the bulk of those who the AC and Fayose would want to show to the whole world as lovers of Ekiti State .

“It is also unfortunate that leaders of the AC who made the loudest noise complaining of Fayose’s criminal acts against the peace loving people of Ekiti are now the ones helping him (Fayose) to unleash terror on the people.”